For Americans who rely on an open Internet to work, learn, create and speak, today marks a grim anniversary. On December 14, 2017, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and his two Republican colleagues voted to eliminate the strong and popular 2015 net neutrality rules, which prohibited broadband Internet access providers like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon from blocking, throttling or otherwise favoring or disfavoring certain Internet traffic. At the same time, the Commission abdicated its role protecting consumers and competition in the broadband market, professing to give that role to the Federal Trade Commission, which has less robust legal and regulatory tools.

Pai would have you believe that the net neutrality repeal was of no consequence — the Internet wasn’t destroyed, cute pictures of cats and dogs are still in abundance, Google and Netflix are alive and well. But even in the short 6 months since the December 14 repeal of the net neutrality rules became effective, we have seen how consumers and competitors lose when broadband providers are given license to self-regulate and the FCC discards its responsibility to oversee the market.

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